How to take care of Alzheimer patients at home? It’s an unfortunately common question. This article will discuss home care for those with Alzheimer’s disease.
How To Take Care Of An Alzheimer’s Patient At Home?
How to take care of Alzheimer’s patient at home? It starts right with the diagnosis. An Alzheimer’s diagnosis is never easy and it’s common for it to be followed with sadness, grief, and anxiety. While entirely natural, those emotions are not necessarily helpful. The first thing to do is some research.
What Exactly Is Alzheimer’s Disease?
Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease, meaning it causes a degradation of brain matter. It accounts for 60% to 70% of all cases of dementia. In most cases, Alzheimer’s begins slowly and the first symptom is typically short-term memory loss. Subsequent symptoms will develop, such as disorientation, problems with language, mood swings, behavioral problems, a loss of motivation, and self-neglect. Every individual Alzheimer’s patient will have different symptoms that manifest in different ways.
What’s The First Step?
The causes of Alzheimer’s are not well understood, there is no known cure, and the disease is progressive, so it only gets worse over time. That’s a lot of bad news, but it’s not entirely bad. You typically have a few years after a diagnosis to prepare for the worst of the disease. The typical life expectancy following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in someone 65 or older is between three and nine years. This means, with the right approach and care, there’s a good chance you can enjoy several meaningful years of companionship with your elderly loved one. It’s not as though they’ll forget who you are immediately after the diagnosis.
This also means you have some time to take effective steps. Instituting simple routines early only following diagnosis can reap great benefits down the road. Get your loved one in the habit of starting their day at the same time in the same way and try to adhere to a simple schedule. Visit at the same time every day. And have a caregiver visit at the same time every day.
Alzheimer’s Care At Home
Many Alzheimer’s patients are high functioning early on, but it’s still best to begin home care during this early period. Having a caregiver come by to visit at the same time every day early on to help with some cleaning or just to spend time with them will prepare your elderly loved one for later on when they need significantly more care, specifically personal care.
Executive Home Care
Executive Home Care offers Alzheimer’s and dementia care. To learn more about Alzheimer’s and dementia care, or about any of our many other services, please contact us via our website or call (888) 963-9133.